Why (the Last 20 Minutes of) Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch Scared the Hell Out Of Me
Mike Sprague
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A few years back Lionsgate announced the director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett were collaborating on a new horror movie called The Woods. We saw a few teaser trailers and posters and then when it was time for The Woods to be released upon the world, Lionsgate pulled the rug out from under every single one of us and revealed that the movie was (gasp!) a secret sequel to The Blair Witch Project cleverly titled Blair Witch.
I assumed like many people – and more specifically Lionsgate – that the movie was going to be a smash hit. After all, I don’t know about you but I was looking forward to not only a sequel to The Blair Witch Project, but the new movie from the filmmaking team behind such neo-classics as A Horrible Way to Die, You’re Next, and The Guest. Turns out I was one of the few who seemed to be looking forward to the movie. It all but bombed on opening weekend and has since gone on to garner nothing but negative reviews and pretty much straight venom from horror movie fans and casual movie fans alike.
Now while I don’t totally disagree with all of the criticisms that have been thrown at Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch, I have to say that the last 20 minutes (while not a “game-changer”) are certainly scary as all hell. In fact, I have seen the film’s final act more times than I’ve seen most of my favorite movies. Yes, the first hour of Blair Witch is a total and complete mess that retreads all of the same ground as the original, only worse. But once Callie Hernandez and that other dude get to the house in the middle of the woods, and the rain starts pouring, that’s when I started shitting my pants.
First off, let’s talk about the house. You know the one. Rustin Parr’s old abode, which since his capture and death all those years back, has fallen into a state of squalor that can only be aptly described as “the shit Freddy Kruger has nightmares about.” Fitting description. Anyhow, all jokes aside, this updated house from the original is a true masterpiece of production design. The house is an endless series of shifting hallways, each more terrifying and ready to infect you than the previous. And the endless pounding rain only made it all the more terrifying for this guy. Supposedly it’s a very common nightmare, but being stuck in a foreign house that keeps expanding and changing shape is a frequent night-terror of my own. So now you know that about me.
Moving on, the other aspect that makes the final 20 minutes of Blair Witch a nightmare on film is the abhorrent sound design. And, of course, I mean abhorrent in the best possible way. The film’s sound design is the source of a seemingly bottomless pit of distress and despair in my guts and heightened my anxiety to the max. I was genuinely terrified that, after viewing the film, I’d be outside all alone and just hear that sound-screeching roaring up behind me; in which case there would only be the simple solution of suicide to remedy my situation.
On top of all that bullshit, then our lead heroine goes and decides to check out the tunnels under the house of horrors and gets f*cking stuck! Oh, Jesus. I’m claustrophobic so please let this be quick. Oh, you’re taking your sweet, panic-inducing time with this part, huh? Great. Now while getting trapped in a tunnel under a witch’s house isn’t my number one fear – not that I’m going to tell you what that is here today – it ranks pretty high up there. What makes matters worse is not only do you get your narrow-ass stuck in a bunny rabbit hole under a nightmare castle but then you can hear a super-monster scuttling up behind you ready to eat your ass like a sandwich. Nope, I almost tapped out here.
Oh, and speaking of the creatures inside and outside the nightmare castle, what in the ever-loving shit were they?!? I say “they” because I’ve paused the film on a few occasions and taken screenshots and I’m pretty sure there are two monsters in play during the final 20 minutes. One is the yellow, long-armed monstrosity that will never leave my head, and the other seems to be more human-like in its appearance – if only slightly. Whatever these creatures are, I’m not digging too deep into figuring out what they are because if horror movies have taught me anything its that you shouldn’t research monsters on the internet. That’s the recipe for a sequel if I’ve ever heard one. And no thank you.
All scary-shit aside, one of the other primary reasons I love the final 20 minutes of Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch is how cleverly it hides its main twist. You see, plenty of peeps I know never even caught on to the fact that [SPOILER ALERT] the video our heroes watched at the beginning of the movie is the same video they are recording at the end. Thus making it all more than evident that the theory of the Blair Witch time-paradox is alive and well trapping our heroes in the dark past. The reason most missed this twist was because Wingard and Barrett “buried” it in the scariest part of the film. Right after we see the Yellow Demon-Thing roaring down the hallway at us, our heroine turns the camera and rushes upstairs, filming the opening video (notice the mirror). Most missed this because you guessed it, they were covering their eyes at this part. Genius way to hide the info, filmmakers. I applaud you.
And while we’re on the topic of “hiding info,” some things, such as the strange light in the attic, will never be revealed by the filmmakers – as we know from the notorious filmmaker’s commentary from the Blair Witch Blu-ray. But that only makes it all the scarier in my eyes. As we all know from the many horror prequels we’ve seen throughout the years, too much knowledge and backstory on the evil at hand only brings about less fear in the face of the foe. Keep it vague and keep it scary. And finally, before we wrap this up, let me give a shout out to the fantastic Callie Hernandez and her fearless performance. Without her acting abilities, the ending wouldn’t have been nearly as scary as it was. I hope to see Hernandez in more films as she showed in Blair Witch she can take even the most mundane of first and second acts and make them watchable… kind of.
And that is why (the last 20 minutes of)Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s Blair Witch scared the shit out of me. Do you agree or disagree? Either way, make sure to hit us up and let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
What movie scared the hell out of you? Let us know below!
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